New Found Glory @ The TLA.
Text by Gabi Chepurny. Images by Mina Lee.
The 5th annual Glamour Kills Tour brought some serious pop punk to the TLA last Wednesday night.
Candy Hearts drew a surprisingly large crowd for an opening band but halfway through their performance there was no wonder why so many were in attendance. The group from the New Jersey/New York area, (we assume this means they don’t want to admit to being from Jersey) played the music of every broken-hearted teenagers dreams and managed to get their audience on its feet and dancing in 20 minutes flat.
Michigan’s Fireworks started off slow but picked up quickly with smooth harmonies that combined a jazzy feel with traditional pop punk energy. The extra-nice midwestern boys made a point to ask if it was anyone’s first Fireworks show.
“Anyone seeing us for the first time?” asked lead singer David Pest. “Hi. It’s really nice to meet you.”
Bassist Kyle O’Neil rocked a t-shirt emblazoned with “Fireworks Detroit Bad Boys Club” even though these guys seemed like anything but.
We Are The In Crowd played to an already packed room, where lead singer Taylor Jardine kept telling the crowd to get excited. Once she felt there was enough moshing, Jardine said, “That’s what I like to see Philly. You scared me there for a minute.”
The band had a perfect energy matched by Jardine’s strong vocals and their infectious beats had us dancing involuntarily.
Headliners New Found Glory opened up with “Selfless” followed by “Understatement,” which guitarist Chad Gilbert stopped halfway through. When lead singer Jordan Pundik asked what was up, Gilbert took the mic and said, “I saw that, dude. When I see you push a girl, there’s nothing I can do. She was so tiny. If you’re gonna be like that you can leave.”
The offender was escorted out by security.
The rest of the show went off without a hitch, with NFG blasting out hits like “Hit or Miss,” “47” and “My Friends Over You.”
“On a serious note, this song is about not being afraid of failure,” Gilbert said fefore launching into “Ready and Willing.” “You cannot let fear of failure determine what you do in your life because you will learn it’s all about the journey.”
While Pundik’s vocals were on point throughout the entire show and the set list was full of crowd favorites, our favorite part of the show was the stuffed Animal muppet attached to the drum kit.
“When we started this band,” Gilbert said, “we wanted to show people that you don’t have to be a cocky rock star to play music on stage.”
Needless to say, the 17-year-old band accomplished what they set out to do.
JUMP: The Philly Music Project 
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